


Getting Used To It

by ticklishraspberries



Category: Barry (TV 2018)
Genre: Crushing, F/M, Fluff, Tickling, Touch-Starved, Touch-Starved Barry Berkman, rehearsal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-11 06:47:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20541854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ticklishraspberries/pseuds/ticklishraspberries
Summary: Barry isn’t used to touch, so an intimate scene with Sally surprises him.





	Getting Used To It

It was no secret that Barry wasn’t used to affection, in really any form.**  
**

He’s shared hugs with Fuches, a few military buddies in the past, but otherwise, that fateful acting class was the most touch he’d received probably in his whole damn life. Actors were incredibly touchy, it seemed, and he couldn’t tell if it made him uncomfortable or excited.

Hugs, kisses on the cheek, arms wrapped around his shoulders, etc. left him feeling…well, the closest emotion to flustered he’d probably ever felt, and oh-so-very out of his comfort zone.

Also, being an actor, in general, was out of his comfort zone. He was used to staying on the sidelines, hiding in plain sight. Besides his kill count, there was really nothing special about him, or so, he’d come to believe.

The class was starting to make him think otherwise, just a tiny crack in his tough exterior.

“Have you ever done a romantic scene like this before?” Sally asked.

Barry shook his head. “Oh, uh, no. I’ve never done any romantic scene before, actually, so…”

Sally grinned. “Oh, so I guess I’m popping your cherry.”

He blinked rapidly. “I…I mean—”

“Oh, sorry, that was really inappropriate.”

“No, no, it’s fine. Let’s just do the scene.”

She nodded, tucking a blonde curl behind her ear, and cleared her throat. Her eyes scanned the script hungrily, digging deep into a new character which she’d play for roughly ten to twenty minutes before likely never even thinking of again.

He watched her for a moment, before hurriedly looking at his lines as well.

The change in Sally’s body language was instant, from casual to flirtatious, legs crossing daintily, fluttering her lashes with a small smirk.

“Maybe we could take this conversation somewhere a little more…private?” she asked, voice soft and sensual.

Barry could have blushed under her gaze then, forgotten he was acting and leaned in to kiss her. But, he didn’t, thankfully. Instead, he read his own line, much more stiffly. “Like the bedroom?”

“Unless you want to do it right here,” Sally, or rather, her character replied, reaching a hand out to stroke his cheek and down the side of his face, cupping beneath his chin.

He flinched away from it instinctively.

He watched Sally break. “Are you okay?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine, sorry.”

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No, not at all—”

“Oh, are you ticklish there?” Sally asked innocently.

Barry blinked. “I, um, I don’t know?” he replied, honestly. Sally seemed to pull some sort of honesty out of him, within reason, at least. He couldn’t tell her the whole picture, but he could tell her the little things.

“You don’t know?” she asked, furrowing her brow.

“Yeah, no, I don’t know,” he admitted, scratching the back of his neck.

“How do you not know something like that? I mean, don’t you have like…siblings, or a girlfriend, or someone who did that to you?”

He shook his head. “Uh, nope.”

There was something almost like pity in her eyes, or maybe simply shock. He wasn’t the best at reading social cues, as if that wasn’t already obvious.

“Oh. Well, do you wanna…get back to the scene?” she asked, feeling the awkwardness between them.

“Yeah, yeah, sure.”

Her hand returned to his cheek again, this time staying there instead of straying to seemingly sensitive territory. “Unless you want to do it right here,” she repeated, going right back into her flirty caricature.

“Oh, is that what you’re into now?” he replied, eyes sneaking peeks at the script. 

She smirked, her other hand grabbing onto his thigh.

He jumped.

She broke again, giggling. “Ticklish there, too?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, clearly, you should have found out by now, with how ticklish you seem.”

That time, he was sure his cheeks were turning a little pink. “Oh.”

She squeezed his thigh, and he twitched again, a strange electric shock running through him, and not the sort of spark he usually felt when she touched him.

She ran her hand down the side of his neck, and he jerked back, a startled sort of laugh leaving his lips. He couldn’t remember a time he’d laughed in such a way, not for a long time.

Sally giggled too, retracting her hands. “Sorry, I got a little carried away. I’ve just never seen you smile so big before.”

Barry cleared his throat. “No worries. So…”

“So?”

“Um, should we keep rehearsing, or…?”

Gene’s voice interrupted them, calling them on to do their scene.

“Wing it?” Barry asked softly.

“I guess so,” Sally replied, smiling softly.

She was a bit more careful on stage to not tickle him, although he certainly did brace himself before each touch, which Gene was able to pick up on and comment about, going on a spiel about intimacy in scenes.

After a good run, Sally pulled him in for a huge huge, squealing with delight.

He hugged her back, tightly. He wasn’t used to it at all, but it didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy it.


End file.
